TiVo Community Forums Archives - Nick at Nite

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Nick at Nite - Plus apologies for posting
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Posted by: monkemon

Why is nick at night always 10 minutes early. its extremely annoying.

Now for the apology. I am absolutely sure there is a thread covering this but i searched and searched and found nothing. So sorry that im posting an old question. This new search engine absolutely sucks and im sad to see every message board is starting to change to this.

Posted by: Corey140

They usually start late for me and go over for as much as 10-15 minutes.
Atleast from 1am up.
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What is popular is not always right.
What is right is not always popular.
It is better to be quiet and thought a fool than to speak and remove all
doubt.

[This message has been edited by Corey140 (edited 07-12-2001).]

Posted by: Skylooker

I agree, it is very annoying. If they think they're "cutting edge" they're wrong. It just conflicts with other things I want to watch so in my puney little mind I've elected Nick the loser. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/cool.gif

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Hacked Phillips HDR112
108+ hours.

Posted by: badcrc

I can't stand this either, Nick needs to fix this or sell out to a company that knows how to schedule programs http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif. Having a show start 10 minutes late then having the end or second half cut off is unacceptable.

Forgot to add, whenever this happens I always just delete the program right away, I'd rather not see any of a show or movie if I can't see the entire thing. So I think they are shooting themselves in the feet repeatedly.

[This message has been edited by badcrc (edited 07-12-2001).]

Posted by: Bryanmc

I agree wholeheartedly!

I hate the stupid start times. If anybody has an address they've sent some words to, let me know and I'll do the same.

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"Always in motion is the future."

Posted by: rasheed

Viacom top management has stated that they dislike the TiVo technology. Similar sentiments have been repeated by A&E networks top folk and others.

Not having proper starting times is a effective way to reduce the benefits of the TiVo service (aside from always padding). MTV/VH1 have been doing this for a long time (intentionally or not, I don't know), Nick probably has joined them. TNN and others should be in there soon if they feel such.

I have been pading my Viacom cable network shows five minutes on each side. You should do the same and hope you don't have back to back conflicts that eliminates all of the encore showings.

Exact Nielsen ratings time don't matter to them as much as it matters to broadcast networks because they still can look at the ratings for each show regardless of when it actually aired.

Such bad timing (a few minutes) doesn't phase those who watch the programming live. Will this practice increase by other channels? It seems very possible if TiVo (and similar devices) are considered only as a threat.

What would your email say to these networks?
"Please start/end your show on time so that my PVR/DVR can record the entire program that will allow me to fast-forward through all of the commercials."

My statement above could also apply to providing better listings data to Tribune, etc.

Of course, I think TiVo is awesome, but this sort of complaint doesn't work unless TiVo management or third-party analysis can convince the network that *partnering* with TiVo is better for their ratings and ability to get more viewers thus get better rates for ad space.

The very poor ad market for cable and broadcast recently does not help in this case either.

Rasheed

Posted by: Jay Levitt

Suggestion: When you write to them, don't tell them it is messing up your TiVo. Tell them it is messing up your VCR, and tell them that you can't just record 5 minutes before and after, because you also tape show X, on channel Y. THe networks have never complained about VCRs.

I don't feel particularly bad fudging the truth with them; they're fudging the truth in their channel listings to you.

Posted by: trainman

The problem is that most people don't watch networks, they watch shows.

The networks either don't believe this or don't want to believe this, and that's led to every evil that exists in television broadcasting today, including permanent "bug" logos, squeezed closing credits, and the timing "problems" discussed in this thread.

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trainman is Jim Ellwanger, with a Sony SVR-2000

Posted by: monkemon

i actually enjoy all my lucy episodes (except the ones that are cut off) because the episodes are actually 3 minutes longer or so. Ive seen them all on fox at least 20 times so watching it on nick theres always some odd sequence that had been edited out on the fox airings. pretty weird...

Posted by: Pam

My unproven theory is that as the night gets later, they insert more and more commercials, so that by the time Nick at Night changes back to kid programming in the morning, they are about 15 minutes off. I have not tested this theory, it only comes from my annoyance at the huge number of commercials I see when I can't sleep and I'm waiting for a sitcom to come on. The good news is most of the time I fall asleep during the commercial break! So maybe they are serving a purpose. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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2 TiVo's, no waiting!

Posted by: Scutter

quote:
Originally posted by rasheed:

Not having proper starting times is a effective way to reduce the benefits of the TiVo service (aside from always padding). MTV/VH1 have been doing this for a long time (intentionally or not, I don't know), Nick probably has joined them. TNN and others should be in there soon if they feel such.

MTV owns Nickelodeon (as well as a crap load of other stuff).

FP

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http://tivo.pineaus.com

TiVo Army of One
We record more before 9 AM than most people record all day.

Posted by: rasheed

quote:
Originally posted by Scutter:
MTV owns Nickelodeon (as well as a crap load of other stuff).
FP

Yes, that was my point, all of the networks I mentioned are part of the Viacom group (MTV, VH1, TNN, NICK, TVLAND, etc.) and could all exhibit the same behavior if it was intentional.

Rasheed

Posted by: Bryanmc

quote:
Originally posted by rasheed:
Viacom top management has stated that they dislike the TiVo technology. Similar sentiments have been repeated by A&E networks top folk and others.

Not having proper starting times is a effective way to reduce the benefits of the TiVo service (aside from always padding). Rasheed

If this is true then, IMHO, they are making a mistake. I know it must be working for them or they wouldn't be doing it but I for one am not going to give up my TiVo in favor of catching Benson from 11:10 to 11:40 or so other such nonsense.

Speaking of that, why doesn't the lineup simply show that a show starts at 11:10 or whatever? If all the guides show it starts at 11 and I'm a live TV watcher I'd still get pretty frustrated.

3AM blues....

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"Always in motion is the future."

Posted by: chicagogreg773

nick at nite scheduling programs to start late on purpose to foil us tivo users??

could viacom also have something to do with nick 1 and nick 2 disappearing from directivo's favorites list everynite? nick 1 disppears from my fav's at 7:25 and nick2 at 10:25....at those times for like 5minutes the channel says "not available". directv says it's nick's fault. hmm...maybe another ploy to p*ss us tivo users off!

Posted by: rasheed

quote:
Originally posted by Bryanmc:
Speaking of that, why doesn't the lineup simply show that a show starts at 11:10 or whatever? If all the guides show it starts at 11 and I'm a live TV watcher I'd still get pretty frustrated.

If a channel does provide an exact start time (like 12:37, etc.) for a show to Tribune, Tribune does round to the nearest five minute, and doesn't like to do this too often (from what I understand) because for the print guides, it causes a separate heading to be created for all of these :05 or :10 off programs. TBS, as many of you can tell, is the only one where this is used normally.

Yes, a valid complaint is about if you are a Live TV viewer and your show always starts late or early when you tune to the channel is good to email to the networks.

Also, I would assume there is a bit of variety in the start times from day to day so it isn't a 'fix' off time otherwise.

Again, I don't work for Viacom, so I can't confirm that the off-schedule is intentional, but it doesn't seem reasonable that they have bad clocks when network programming for channels like CBS (part of Viacom family) are on-time.

Padding is the best solution for this, but you can't start a program late in the current version of the software, so there are some limits to this and it doesn't work well for back to back (even if the two programs are on the same network).

I do believe that the companies didn't like VCRs either, but they are still complicated enough with tapes, etc. (even with VCR+, etc.) to be a different type of threat than TiVo in ease of use to do time-shifting and commercial forwarding (aside from VCR commercial scan). You have the integration of some powerful guide data, descriptions, and other features to make the recording of stuff very different on a TiVo than on a VCR.

Rasheed

Posted by: soundguy

Contacting the networks is pointless. They don't give a rat's ass what you think. All they care about is profits. If you want to hit them where it hurts, organize a massive (and I do mean MASSIVE) email campaign that targets the advertisers. They are the ones who pay the bills at the networks, therefore they are the only ones who can force policy.

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Patrick Callahan
Check out www.themothership.net for links to the latest PTV technologies!

Posted by: disco

Ad the Disney Channel to the bunch...my daughter records "Boy Meets World" and they constantly start the show 4-5 minutes late, cutting off the last 4-5 minutes. Very annoying for a channel that only runs commercials FOR ITS OWN PROGRAMS...they COULD cut some out to at least END the show on time.

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Nathan::
"Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continue...ayyy!"

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